Transportation Dept. Reprimands Oil Industry

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

March 28, 2014

Federal transportation officials rebuked the oil industry on Friday for not providing the information regulators said they needed to gauge the danger of moving crude by rail. Officials at the Transportation Department said they had received only limited data on the characteristics of oil from the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana. “The overall and ongoing lack of cooperation is disappointing, slows progress and certainly raises concerns,” the agency said in a statement. Representatives from the American Petroleum Institute said they weren’t dragging their feet. “We’d like to know what information they’re not getting so we can give it to them,” said a spokesman, Eric Wohlschlegel. There have been at least four major accidents involving trains carrying crude from the Bakken region since production began to boom in 2008. Regulators have warned that Bakken oil, which has high levels of natural gases, could be more dangerous than conventional crudes.